The instrumentation for Iron Composer 2012 was a trio of prepared piano, tuba, and B-flat clarinet. The piano’s range was divided into four distinct preparations: aluminum foil on the bass strings, weather stripping on the low-middle strings, thumbtacks on the high-middle strings, and screws with washers on the high strings.
The secret musical ingredient was 8 seconds of silence. Inspired by John Cage, whose 100th anniversary was just two days before the competition, the duration of 8 seconds was determined by the number of letters in his name. The composers were allowed to use all 8 seconds at once, or in smaller groupings. However, they were not allowed to use the allotted silence at the beginning or the end of their piece.
David S. Carter (b. San Antonio, Tex., 1973) is a doctoral student in music composition at Northwestern University, where he has also taught music theory and aural skills to undergraduate music majors. His principal composition teachers have been Lee Hyla, Jay Alan Yim, Aaron Travers, and Jonathon Grasse. His work for bass clarinet and chamber orchestra, Almost Past, won Northwestern’s 2009 William T. Faricy Award and the 2008 Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra Student Composition Competition, and his carillon piece In Scattered Rings won second prize in the 2008 Rhenen (Netherlands) International Carillon Composition Competition; his Setting Out, for violin and piano, was selected as a Finalist for the Midwest Graduate Music Consortium’s 2012 meeting. He has participated in and had works performed at June in Buffalo (2011), the 2008 Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice at New England Conservatory, Music07 at the University of Cincinnati, and the 2007 Bowdoin International Music Festival. He holds degrees from Yale University (B.A. English Literature, 1996) and the University of Southern California Law School (J.D., 1999), and worked as an attorney for four years before turning to music full-time in 2004.
Anne H. Goldberg blurs the definitions of music and dance as a composer, choreographer, and performer. Founder and artistic director of the Synthesis Aesthetics Project, a collaborative between musicians, dancers, multimedia and spoken word artists, Anne has produced, composed, choreographed and directed a variety of productions, most recently her evening length production of “Crude Civility,” developed at her Emerging-Artist-in-Residence at The Field. In addition to Synthesis, Ms. Goldberg co-founded the new music ensemble Tempus Continuum Ensemble, and is a member of the Reform@ trio, premiering and performing both her own music and that of other 20th and 21st Century composers. Touring the east coast and internationally, Ms. Goldberg’s music has been premiered and performed internationally by ensembles such as the Boston New Music Institute, the Novatrio, NeoLit Ensemble, and at the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice at New England Conservatory. Her artistry has been featured in music venues such as Symphony Space, the Kitchen, the Flea Theater, and many others nationally and internationally. Ms. Goldberg’s educational background, although based upon the study of science, mathematics and languages, never strayed far from her passion for the arts. Through the pursuit of piano and oboe, she gained a respect for the depth and a greater understanding of the creative aspect of composing. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wellesley College and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and received her M.M. of Classical Composition at Manhattan School of Music under Dr. Marjorie Merryman, and influences of Nils Vigeland, Reiko Füting, and Mark Stambaugh. She is now a D.M.A. candidate at MSM under Dr. Reiko Füting.
Anne freelances in the New York and Greater Boston area on a multitude of projects ranging from recording sessions to live events to music ministry. She has played as a regular member in the New England Philharmonic, the Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra, both on oboe and English Horn. Anne has commissioned and premiered a number of works, and will be choosing and performing the Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame English Horn call for scores in 2013. She is proud to have studied under Barbara Lafitte and contemporary techniques under Libby Van Cleve.
As a pianist, has been playing and performing all her life in a wide variety of settings. From classical to jazz, Anne performs as a soloist, chamber musician, and ensemble member both nationally and internationally, in venues from Avery Fisher Hall to Disneyland Paris. She frequently performs, premiers, and records new music from emerging composers, as well as repertoire from the 20th and 21st Centuries. As a composer/performer, Anne performs her own repertoire in the Tempus Continuum Ensemble and the Reform@ Trio.
Some of her current projects include learning the entire Vingt Regards pour l’Enfant Jesus and Harawi by Olivier Messaien. She is excited to be collaborating with contemporary soprano Delea Shand on Harawi, which will turn into an evening length event for the Synthesis Aesthetics Project. Anne is proud to have studied under Scott Rednour, Randy Hodgkinson, Charles Fisk, Lois Shapiro and Dawn Goulet.
In addition to her musical and choreographic pursuits, Anne is a professional figure skater, holding gold freestyle, artistry and ice dancing titles in the United States and Canada as well as International ice dancing titles. As a member of the Ice Theater of New York and a freelance coach, she teaches ballet and modern dance for figure skaters, as well as general conditioning and Pilates classes.
Julie Hill is a composer and vocalist from South Florida. She currently studies at Manhattan School of Music with Dr. Nils Vigeland.
Before finding concert music, Julie enjoyed a short career as an actress and a singer of popular genres. During this time, she toured the country as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and returned to New York to perform her original music at numerous venues in the East Village, Lower East Side, and Brooklyn.
In 2009, she attended Berklee College of Music on a composition scholarship for one year before transferring to Manhattan School of Music in order to study with Dr.Vigeland.Through out the transitional period between Berklee and M.S.M., she studied composition with Dr. Reiko Fueting and
became very interested in opera through her vocal studies with Yale School of Music alumna, Abigail Nims.
Her experiences as an actor, performer of pop music, composer at renowned jazz school Berklee and
now a composer/performer of classical music have heavily influenced her work in Sange af Sifjar. This project is her first piece as a composer and librettist.
The music of Caroline Mallonée has been performed in New York City at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, Merkin Hall, Tenri Cultural Center, and Tonic, as well as at the Tribeca New Music Festival, Long Leaf Opera Festival, Carlsbad Music Festival, Bowdoin Summer Music Festival, 21st Century Schizoid Music, on the New Music New Haven series and at Boston’s Jordan Hall. Her music has been performed in the U.S., the Netherlands, Wales, England, Iceland, Japan, Italy and Mexico, and has been broadcast several times over National Public Radio on Garrison Keillor’s “Prairie Home Companion.” Several of her choral pieces, including The Carolers At My Door, are published by Boosey & Hawkes.
Recent commissions include new works for Firebird Ensemble (Boston), Present Music (Wisconsin), Ethos Percussion Group (New York), Friends School of Baltimore, pianist John McDonald (Boston) and Monadnock Music (New Hampshire). An octet for voice, six instruments, electronics and video inspired by the paintings of Paul Signac written for the Wet Ink Ensemble was premiered in July 2009. Last season saw the premiere of Shadow Rings, a new quartet commissioned by Antares and Tomorrow Sharpened for marimba and piano, which was made possible by a grant from the Fromm Foundation. Tomorrow Sharpened was written for Haruka Fujii and Eric Huebner and was premiered in Tokyo.
Ms. Mallonée’s quartet, Throwing Mountains, received an ASCAP/Morton Gould Young Composers prize in 2004 and has been performed numerous times by the New York-based group counter)induction as well as by the Da Capo Chamber Players, the Washington Square Contemporary Chamber Players and Present Music. Another chamber work, ‘stain, composed in 2002 for pulsoptional, is featured on their debut CD and has been performed throughout the United States by Flexible Music.
Ms. Mallonée holds a Ph.D. from Duke University, a Master’s degree from the Yale School of Music and a Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University. A Fulbright award recipient, she spent a year in The Netherlands studying with Dutch composer Louis Andriessen and has also studied with Mario Davidovsky, Joseph Schwantner, Stephen Jaffe, Scott Lindroth, Evan Ziporyn and Pamela Layman Quist.
This season includes performances of Mallonée’s music by the Buffalo Chamber Players, UB Percussion Ensemble, Wild Rumpus, the Ancia Saxophone Quartet, Vocalis Chamber Choir, the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, Florilegium Chamber Choir and the Da Capo Chamber Players.
Ms. Mallonée is the director of The Walden School Creative Musicians Retreat, a week-long workshop in New England for composers, improvisers and performers. She teaches at The Walden School Young Musicians Program in Dublin, NH each summer.
Mark Popeney (b. 1982, San Diego, Ca) is a composer whose music spans many styles and media. He has experience composing a wide array of music, whether for the concert stage, musical theater, or film. His music has been heard throughout America, with performances by such ensembles as Ensemble Signal, the USC Thornton Symphony, UCLA Philharmonia, the UCLA Chorale, the USC Contemporary Music Ensemble, and the Third Wheel Trio. His musical, irl (In Real Life) (co-written by Alexandar Castaneda) was premiered by Hooligan Theater Company in May 2011. Mark’s string quartet, Channels, was awarded the Peter David Faith Memorial Award in Composition at USC in 2010, and won honorable mention in the National Association of Composers, USA composition competition in 2009. In 2006 he received the UCLA Mancini Award for film composition.
Mark received his Doctor of Music Arts from the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, where he studied with Stephen Hartke and Donald Crockett. Mark earned his master’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2007, studying composition with Ian Krouse, Paul Chihara, Roger Bourland, and David Lefkowitz, and film scoring with Charles Fox. He received his bachelor’s degree in 2004 from the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in music and political science. There he studied composition with John Thow. Mark teaches music theory and composition at USC, and secondary schools around Los Angeles. Mark is an avid singer and guitarist, and has performed with and led numerous ensembles in many styles. Currently, Mark performs with the Los Angeles-based rock quintet Dream Hydra.
Before each piece is performed, the composer is asked to speak about how they handled the assigned challenge.
Anne Goldberg’s Introduction
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Julie Hill’s Introduction
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David Carter’s Introduction
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Mark Popeney’s Introduction
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Caroline Mallonée’s Introduction
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Robert Mayerovitch, prepared piano
Ken Heinlein, tuba
David Snyder, clarinet
Anne Goldberg’s TessiturA
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Julie Hill’s S.Peak!
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David Carter’s Eight Degrees of Separation
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Mark Popeney’s Bend, Don’t Break
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Caroline Mallonée’s For Cage on His 100th Anniversary
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After each piece is performed, the three judges are asked to share some brief comments. The composer judge was Margaret Brouwer. The performer judge was Ken Heinlein (tuba), and the non-musician judge was James DeRosa, Commissioner of Real Estate for the City of Cleveland and programmer of the Ingenuity Festival.
On Anne Goldberg’s entry
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On Julie Hill’s entry
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On David Carter’s entry
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On Mark Popeney’s entry
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On Caroline Mallonée’s entry
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While the scores are tallied, WCLV cuts away to a pre-taped interview with contest director Joe Drew:
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Caroline Mallonée, 2nd prize, $350
Julie Hill, 3rd prize, $300
Mark Popeney, 4th prize, $250
Anne Goldberg, 5th prize, $200
Composer | Use of Secret Ingredient | Originality | Technical Command | Overall Presentation | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
David Carter | 38 | 36 | 24 | 25 | 120 |
Anne Goldberg | 20 | 28 | 14 | 18 | 80 |
Julie Hill | 14 | 34 | 27 | 26 | 101 |
Caroline Mallonée | 36 | 33 | 21 | 22 | 112 |
Mark Popeney | 20 | 36 | 18 | 24 | 98 |
NOTE: The announced results reflected a scoring error by one of the judges, who employed a 15-point scale for all categories. The posted results are the official scores. The scoring error did not affect the outcome.
David Carter’s score includes the 3-point penalty he accepted after requesting more time to finish his work.
Announcement of the results:
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